IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v209y2026ics0965856426001552.html

High-speed rail and employment disparity: A sectoral perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Zheng, Longfei
  • Wu, Shuping
  • Zhang, Anming
  • Zhou, Zhengyi

Abstract

By reducing intercity transport costs, transportation infrastructure can reshape the spatial distribution of urban sectoral employment and affect regional disparity. This paper develops a theoretical model to illustrate the effects of high-speed rail (HSR) on employment disparity between core and peripheral cities, highlighting differences between the manufacturing and service sectors. The model’s predictions are supported by city-pair-level evidence. We empirically show that HSR connections significantly widen employment gaps between core and peripheral cities in the service sector, while slightly narrowing the gap in the manufacturing sector. Moreover, the effects on the service sector mainly stem from employment growth, whereas those on the manufacturing sector result from a redistribution of existing employment. The net effect on labor welfare depends on the relative strength of different forces.

Suggested Citation

  • Zheng, Longfei & Wu, Shuping & Zhang, Anming & Zhou, Zhengyi, 2026. "High-speed rail and employment disparity: A sectoral perspective," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:209:y:2026:i:c:s0965856426001552
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2026.105014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856426001552
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2026.105014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:209:y:2026:i:c:s0965856426001552. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.